Machine for separating slate and other foreign substances from coal



3 SheetsSheet 1.

, E. BORDA & D. GLOVBR.

SLATE PIGKBR.

' No. 18,380. Patented 001;. 13, 1857.

3 SheetsSheet 2.

E. BORDA 85 D. GLOVER. SLATE PIGKERH No. 18,380. I Patented Oct. 13, 1857.

3 Sheets Sheet 3.

E. BORDA 8v D. GLOVER.

SLATE PIOKER.

No. 18,380. Patented Oct. 13, 1857.

. UNITED PATENT OFFICE.

E. BORDA AND DAVID GLQVER, OF WOODSIDE,PENNSYLVANIA.

MACHINE FOR SEPARATING SLATE AND OTHER FOREIGN SUBSTANCES FROM COAL.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 18,380, dated October 13, 1857.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that we, EUGENE BORDA and DAVlD GLovnR, both of Voodside, in the county of Schuylkill and State of Pennsylvania, have made certain new and useful Improvements in Machinery for Separating Slate from Coal; and we hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a plan, Fig. 2 a front eleva tion, Fig. 3 an end elevation, and Fig. 4 a section of screen.

The lettes of reference indicate the same parts in the difierent figures wherever they occur.

The objects of our improvements are to separate slate, bone, unmerchantable pieces, and dirt from mineral coal, to save labor, and to improve the quality of prepared coal.

The usual process of separating slate from coal is by hand picking as it passes down a chute after having been screened, but as the coal slate always breaks into flat slabs composed of several laminae, and owing to this shape and its greater specific gravity as compared with coal (which latter breaks into solid masses of irregular form) it is liable to work itself under the coal and ren ders the operation of handpicking very unreliable, particularly for the smaller sizes of coal, and for an extensive business. But in our improved apparatus we take advantage of the peculiarity in the form of the slate and separate that as well as bone and the fiat pieces of coal, which in the anthracite trade are objected to by the consumer, and add to this the advantage of cleaning the coal thoroughly, as no dirt can possibly escape from passing through the screen.

The apparatus we use is constructed as follows. A suitable frame work F sustains a cylindrical screen S. This screen is composed of two heads H, (which may be either open or closed) fixed upon a shaft working in boxes upon the frame. These heads are connected by longitudinal bars, arranged parallel to the axis of rotation of the cylinder at equal distances from each other to suit the size of the coal. The bars may be roound, square, .fiat, diamond, or any other convenient shape. An inclined chute A conveys the coal &c., from the usual square meshed screen, this chute may be inclined to any desired angle with the horizon and may be placed at any elevation above the axis and below the top of the cylinder that may be found most convenient in practice, and according to the size of the coal. An inclined chute C, is placed under the screen commencing at the forward part of the cylinder and extending tothe rear of the machine. Another inclined chute extends forward from the front of the cylinder. All the chutes are covered with sheet iron.

In operation the cylinder is put in motion by hand or other power in the direction of the dart. The coal mixed with slate, &c., passes down the inclined plane of A and the pieces of slate and fiat pieces of coal present themselves to the interstices between the bars in a proper position to slip through. They either do so at once and pass into the interior of the cylinder, or they are caught and carried up by the revolution of the cylinder until they approach a perpendicular position when they fall through by their own gravity. The coal in the meantime unable to pass between the bars is carried over the cylinder and falls into the conducting chute B. If any of the slate, &c., in consequence of being entangled with the coal or from any other cause should not be separated the operation may be repeated by passing the coal again over the cylinder or by increasing the number of the cylinders. The slate and refuse that passes into the cylinder either passes off by the chute C or out at the endsof the cylinder.

We are aware that coal and other substances have been screened by placing them inside or passing them through the interior of revolving cylindrical screens composed of parallel slats or bars, but though such screens may allow some pieces of slate to pass through that accidentally present them: selves in a favorable posit-ion, yet as a separator of slate from coal, it is manifestly inferior in effect to our apparatus in which the slate is designedly presented edgewise, to the interstices between the bars by the inclined plane of the chute and only an accidental combination of circumstances can prevent this.

Having thus fully described our improvements what we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,

Separating coal from slate by the apparatus-above described, or in any equivalent names to this specification before two submanner, when the mass to be separated 1s scrlblng witnesses.

conveyed by an inclined plane to the outside E. BORDA. 10

of a horizontal revolving cylinder, com- DAVID GLOVER. posed of bars parallel to its axis of revolu- WVitnesses:

tion, substantially as herein specified. C. TOWER,

In testimony whereof We have signed our JACOB REED. 

